"Paper" test for tuberculosis
Taiwanese paper with nanoparticles will change color from tuberculosis
Scientists from Taiwan have developed a "paper" test for the diagnosis of tuberculosis. The procedure is simple: moisten a special paper with saliva, then take a picture of it with a smartphone and get the result.
According to According to the World Health Organization, tuberculosis remains one of the leading causes of death worldwide – every year the disease claims the lives of more than a million people. At the same time, 95% of deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, and most often it is a matter of late diagnosis. Standard methods of primary diagnosis are lung X–rays or fluorography, methods that are inaccessible to a huge number of residents of developing countries. The development of scientists from Taiwan allows for diagnostics in the field.
The researchers suggest using a simple test: it is enough for the patient to moisten a paper strip with saliva, which will then change color. You can evaluate the test results with an application installed on a regular smartphone using a regular camera.
Image courtesy of Chien-Fu Chen
The technology is based on nanoparticles with fluorescent single–stranded DNA sequences that are able to bind to double–stranded DNA - the genetic material of bacteria that cause tuberculosis. With such binding, the density of the surface charge of the nanoparticles changes, and, accordingly, their color. Thus, when tuberculosis bacteria get on paper containing nanoparticles, it is possible to observe how the test strip changes color. The camera of an ordinary smartphone allows you to analyze this change.
The authors of the study have already tested the technology both on laboratory samples of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and on biological material taken from an infected person.
The main achievement is the possibility of rapid diagnosis of tuberculosis, which is especially important for poorly developed and remote areas from large cities.
An article about the development was published in the journal ACS Sensors.
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15.09.2017